My personal blog for thoughts on DnD and other tabletop RPGs.
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Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Rogues & Scrolls!

I knew I'd have to go back to Rogues ever since I decided that in my campaign all classes could try to find and disarm traps. Sure, I ruled that class skills were rolled at +3 and non-class skills were rolled at -3, but as rolls get better as characters level up (Unlike the fixed 1 chance in 6 that a Fighter would have in Lamentations of the Flame Princess no matter what his level, for example.) that would mean little if a player ever picked the Rogue class. Well, they're the class that requires the least XP to level up, so there's at least that to begin with. Let's see what else I can do for them though.Dungeons &Dragons 3.5 made me used to the idea of Rogues being able to read and cast from scrolls. Looking for an OSR equivalent, I noticed that Crypts & Things has their Thief class able to read them at 6th level. I can't use the rules as written because of the differences in how scrolls work in my campaign compared to how they work in that book. Thankfully, Castles & Crusades: Castle Keeper's Guide has an optional rule for Non-Caster Scroll Use in page 50. That one works well, so I'll give that option just to the Rogue. The difficulty is a bit high but Rogues would use it as a class skill so they'd get a +3 for that roll and you don't want it to be so easy that it becomes the same thing as for spellcasters. Plus at 6th level it's just about the time when maybe the non-Rogue players are starting to feel more comfortable rolling to find for traps despite that -3 so it's perfect timing, it gives the Rogue something else.